Caracas.- Ángel Reyes’ kryptonite throughout the entire elimination round was finding runners in scoring position. He couldn’t produce in that situation. His career stagnated to the point that, if he was the great acquisition of the offseason for Navigators of Magellanwent on to stay on the bench in the first games of the Round Robin. It seems, now, things are changing.
The right-handed slugger, with men on third and second base, hit a single in the eighth inning to drive in the two runs that gave the ship the final lead. 3-2 over Cardenales de Lara on Monday, at the beginning of the last week of the round-robin, in Barquisimeto.
Ángel Reyes, who frequently swung successfully at the first pitch of his at-bats on the night, fanned the first of Ronnie Williams’ pitches in that eighth inning. From then on, he came from behind in the count, and at 2-2, he dispatched the decisive hit between the third base and the shortstop.
“Williams opened me up with a breaking delivery, the complete opposite of how they had been working on me in previous games,” the patrolman told Ignacio Serrano, in the post-game interview of 1 Baseball Network. “I changed the plan. I focused on looking for a good pitch, and I got it to give that hit.”
Ángel Reyes, who finished the day 4-3 with two RBIs and one scored, made the difference for Magallanes’ seventh straight win against the Cardenales, counting the last five of the regular season, and the two most recent in the semifinal. Meanwhile, it reduced the ship’s difference with second place in the standings, occupied by crepusculares and Águilas del Zulia, to only 1.0 game.
FRESH MEMORY
La Carabela, inspired with five victories in the last seven confrontations in this Round Robin, clings to the feat it already achieved in the first phase of the tournament, when it came back from the second half of November.
“Everyone knows that we have the possibility of repeating it. We must go game by game,” Ángel Reyes commented to Adriana Flores, for Televen. “This is a much shorter stage, but we are very positive. We are not lowering our heads. We are all focused on achieving the goal.”
In that buccaneer reaction in January, the oriental has a lot to do with it, who after starting in only one of the team’s first eight games in the phase, has been in the starting lineup in the most recent three, the last two resolved in victory.
“When I wasn’t doing well and I stopped playing, I asked God to show me the way,” Ángel Reyes confessed to Serrano. “I worked really hard to get back to being the hitter I know I am.”
THE PITCHING
Ricardo Sánchez returned and picked up things exactly where he left them, going 5.0 scoreless innings with just three hits given up (all singles), four strikeouts and one walk. The Pitcher of the Year had all the numbers to continue at least one more inning, but he was ejected after the last out of the fifth frame.
It was a brilliant duel of starters, because on the opposite side, Wilmer Font played for 6.0 innings with only one admitted line, leaving the match winning. But Lara’s bullpen, for the third game in a row, succumbed again, after starting to work with an advantage.
Félix Cepeda (1-0), third of four relievers used by manager Yadier Molina, won the award, with an inning and a third of blank work.
Felipe Rivero, for his part, was the co-protagonist, along with Ángel Reyes, of the filibuster conquest. The flamethrower was credited with a game saved with five outs, three of them by way of strikeout. He took the mound with a lead in the eighth, but with a runner on second base and only one out. He dominated the fiery big league Luisángel Acuña with a ground ball to first, walked Ildemaro Vargas and guillotined Danry Vásquez. Already in the ninth, he retired Jesús Bastidas, Alejandro Mejía and Luis Barrera in a row.
Ronnie Williams (0-2), for his part, suffered the setback, receiving three hits and two earned runs in two-thirds of work.
WHAT’S COMING
Magallanes (5-6) will travel to Margarita to begin a series of two challenges against Bravos on Tuesday, with Esmil Rogers as the filibuster starter for the first of them. Cardenales (6-5), for its part, which registered its third loss in a row, will seek to get out of the bad streak in Maracaibo, also on Tuesday, against Águilas del Zulia, with César Valdez as the twilight starter.
FROM THE GROUND
MAGELLAN
- – Wilfredo Tovarwho since the goodbye of Carlos Rodriguez He assumed the role of leadoff hitter and began the day with an average of .333 (4-for-12) at the head of the lineup in the Round Robin, he spoke with the journalist Ignacio Serranofor the prelude to 1 Baseball Network, about that feature. “My mentality as a leadoff hitter is to be on base. That is what has helped me in my career in that role, also with Leones del Caracas. Take good at-bats, swing at high counts, 3-1 or 3-2. The more pitches the pitcher makes, the better,” he explained.
- – If Tovar took the starting spot in the lineup, Angel Reyes He did it in the center field of Magallanes, after the departure of Rodríguez. The right-handed slugger, who left a meager batting average of .184 with runners in scoring position in the elimination round, began the duel with an average of .400 (5-2) in that situation in the round-robin. “I always kept working. Even on the days I didn’t play, I kept making adjustments. I tried to rediscover my best version, and lately, I’ve looked much better,” Reyes told Adriana Flores y German Cartaya for the prelude to Televen, prior to his leading performance.
CARDINALS
- -Yonny Hernandez He returned to action after suffering right quadriceps spasms on Saturday. He was a third baseman and hit ninth in his comeback. “There is nothing to worry about. In that game I decided to go out, because I preferred not to play with discomfort. I took the day off yesterday (Sunday), they evaluated me, and nothing bad came out,” the infielder told Ignacio Serranofor the prelude to 1 Baseball Network.
- –The captain Ildemaro Vargas He referred to the team’s atmosphere after the two consecutive defeats, in an interview with Televen, before the start of the match. “There is no pressure, but there is greater responsibility to win and do the little things. You have to keep your feet on the ground,” he said.
- – The benches emptied in the top of the fifth inning, after an involuntary collision of Ricardo Sanchez con Willians Astudilloin a base run between the first and second cushion. The game was stopped for about 15 minutes. Both Astudillo and Sánchez were expelled for Robert Morenosecond baseman.
- -Danry Vasquez He was also sent to the showers, but in the eighth episode, by the main umpire Anderson Valeroafter protesting the count of balls and strikes. Then, César Izturis He was also expelled.
IN NUMBERS
- –Magallanes improved his lifetime record against the Cardinals in Round Robin to 42-31, according to the Larense press department.
- –This is Round Robin 25 of five teams. Only three clubs have qualified for the Grand Final with a 9-7 record: Lara in 2000-2001, Leones in 2004-2005 and Tiburones in 2022-2023. On seven occasions, the currencies that have ended with that record have been eliminated, according to the records of Germán Cartaya.
- – Angel Reyes He left his offensive line this postseason at .409/.500/.682 with nine hits, including a home run, a double and a triple. Added to that, there were also six runs batted in and five scored.
- -Ricardo Sánchez He only made 52 deliveries in his opening, before being sent off. It was his first outing since January 2. He has an ERA of 0.82 and a WHIP of 1.00 in 11.0 innings, with a ratio of 10 strikeouts and two walks in the Round Robin.
- –To Felipe Rivero it was his first five-out appearance of the season. His limit is 2.0 innings pitched, on October 13, 2024.
- – Norwith Gudiño He performed for the sixth time in the last seven games. He pitched a scoreless inning and scored his fifth hold of the round-robin.
- – 3 hours and 10 minutes was the duration of the game.
- – 8 mil 543 Fans attended the Antonio Herrera Gutiérrez Stadium.
